Leave the Rest

Before

The heavens were a bloodbath, and the earth held a grudge. Sirens wailed as more fire fell from the clouds; other wails cut through the smoke and quivering tension - mothers slighted too soon by the life that existed here. There was a hush over the compound, however. Rush hour would soon remedy that particular lull, as scientists of all ages and varieties started in on their frenzied work. Soon after would come the soldiers to pick them off one by one, slowing their progress for another day. Yet this day... something was intangible but undeniable. The prickle of premonition before a lightning strike, a shift in the pallor of the city perhaps. Regardless, it was felt. Animals stirred uneasily as the day started, beginning to voice their displeasure at the first sounds of consciousness; as the day went on, it grew to a nearly unbearable cacophony. Abruptly and precisely at 15:15, it stopped. A dead quiet fell over everything in the compound, and then the city - by anyone's reckoning, possibly the world. There was no siren, and in fact no sign of life at all. One voice exclaimed in the silence, one of honest joy. The likes of it were never heard again, but in the small space between 15:15 and 15:20, something happened. The few scientists who were left had come to the culmination of their life's work, and they followed through. The portal was their only hope, and their sole option. So they went. The only trace of them left in the tepid air were the words that make a war. Curiously, their breakthrough never existed; after the closing of the portal at 15:20 exactly, it became 15:14. The animals were at their very loudest, and continued well past 16:00. Life went on as usual, with the regular bombings and chaos and noisy livestock. No one heard the damning tones from the voice in the compound.

"Leave the rest."